Howard
Fast,
born
1914, wrote
more
than
40 novels
in his
own
name
and
20 as
E. V.
Cunningham.
He joined
the
American
Communist
Party
in 1943
and fell
foul
of the
McCarthy
investigations
in 1950.
Already
a well
known
writer,
he served
three
months
in jail
for
failing
divulge
to the
un-Americian
activites
committee
the
names
of contributors
to a
hospital
for
Spanish
Republicans.
Blacklisted
after
release,
mainstream
publishers
would
not
touch
his
books
and
he set
up his
own
publishing
company.
Blue
Heron
Press
published
'Spartacus'
in 1951,
an account
of the
slave
revolt
of 71BC,
and
was
later
filmed.
It was
not
until
1956,
after
the
crushing
of Hungarian
unprising,
that
he left
the
Communist
Party.

His
other
most
successful
earlier
books
include
Freedom
Road
(1944)
and
The
American
(1946)
but
his
later
work
was
also
very
popular
with
The
Immigrants
(1977),
the
first
of a
series
of titles
tracing
the
history
of an
American
family.
His
last
book
was
Greenwich
(2000)
and
he died
in Old
Greenwich,
Connecticut
on 12
March
2003.

Palestinian fragment sold

Not
part of the Dead Sea
Scrolls but a memorandum
from
Menachim Begin, while
a senior member of the
Irgun Zvai Leumi, written while
Palestine was still
under
the British Mandate.

Typed
on a single sheet of
paper and marked “true
copy”, the document
was recovered from a
glass bottle by a British
Intelligence Officer
on Mount Carmel and
has been hailed as “possibly
the first of its kind
actually to coin the
word ‘terrorist’”.

Sold
by auctioneers Mullock and Madeley
at their Church Stretton
sale on March 14th, it
was expected to make £500-700
and realised £500.

Diary
of a Paris Executioner

Last
month 14 notebooks
comprising the diaries
of Anatole Deibler,
France’s last public
executioner, were sold
in Paris £55,600.

Handwritten
on lined paper within
drab beige covers, the
2000 pages recount in
chilling detail the
last moments of 400
souls from 1885-1939
(when the last public guillotining
took place) – their crimes,
trials, attitudes to
death, behaviour and
even the weather at
the moment of execution
– all noted down by
the man who despatched
them.

The diaries
were bought by publishers
Scriptura, who plan
to publish the diaries
as a message against
the horrors of the death
penalty.

Hay
Festival

The Hay Festival
is due to take place at
the UK's major booktown,
Hay-on-Wye from 23rd May
to 1st June 2003. For the
ten days some 50,000 visitors
converge on Hay from all
over the UK, Europe and
America to join in a carnival
celebration. It's a market
of ideas, where stories
are exchanged.

There are
some interesting statistics
on the Hay Festival website:Audience
Survey: Most of the visitors
are self-employed, senior
executives or teachers.Average
household income: evenly
split between £40-60,000 and
£75,000 + p.a.Chief
newspaper habit: The Guardian,
The Sunday Times, The Times,
The Independent.Chief
magazine subscription: Economist,
Private Eye, The Week, GQ,
TLS, Conde Nast Traveller,
Country Living, Prospect,
The New Yorker, The LRB.

'State of the nation'
books

From the shortlists
we showed last month and
announced on World Book
Day, March 6, the winning books judged to best represent
the national characters
of the English, Scottish, Welsh and
Northern Irish in the 'We are what we read'
campaign were:

An art book
bought for $80 (£52) has
been found to contain four
original Picasso works.
Brett Floyd, 39, bought
the book 'Picasso:Toreros'
at a California fundraising
event a year ago. Then one
month ago, the art lover
noticed a framed lithograph
in a gallery identical to
one in his folio. He has
since had the book valued
at $17,000 (£11,000).

The mortgage
broker
was unaware of what he
had really purchased until
he went to a gallery in
Newport Beach months later
where he saw on display
one of the lithographs from
his book. The gallery's
art consultant told him
the sketch on the wall was
taken from the 1961 book
and Mr Floyd then discovered
there were four originals
in the folio and had them
valued. He is planning to
have the book auctioned
by Christie's in Beverley
Hills.

US
Award for Ian McEwan

British author
Ian McEwan's best-selling
novel 'Atonement' has won
one of the top prizes for
fiction in the US. The National
Book Critics Circle (NBCC)
chose McEwan's book in New York.
It had previously
shortlisted for the UK's
Booker prize and the Whitbread
award.

The critics
group is made up of about
750 of America's leading
book editors and critics.
More than 250,000 copies
of 'Atonement' are in print
in the US alone, which industry
analysts consider remarkable
for a literary novel published
during difficult economic
times.

Hearing of
his novel's NBCC success,
McEwan said in a statement
that he thought "Atonement
would be pretty much an
acquired taste". McEwan
has long been known for
complex, disturbing novels
such as 'The Innocent' and '
Black Dogs'. 'Atonement' however
has proved a big hit with
the general public in both
the UK and the US and brought
the author some of his best
reviews.

Next Month: There will be
further details on the forthcoming book 'Morchilla and Ptarmagon' by Hugh Montgomery